Brian Pugsley Counselling

Welcome! I am a BACP Accredited Counsellor working from Leigh near Tonbridge, within easy reach of Sevenoaks, Edenbridge, Tunbridge Wells, or worldwide via Skype or telephone. I’m committed to providing a quality counselling service that is professional, compassionate and potent.

I’ve put together this website to say something more about counselling, about my counselling, about my practice, and a little about me. I invite you to take a few minutes to look around, and please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback.

About counselling

Counselling is a one-to-one talking therapy delivered by trained, skilful practitioners who work with people to help increase awareness, make effective life changes, and enhance mental wellbeing.

Counselling is not giving advice, nor is it the same as a supportive chat with friends or family. A counsellor is empathic, non-judgemental, and able to work with your emotions from an impartial standpoint without becoming emotionally involved themselves. Sessions take place at regular times and days in a confidential and private setting. Counselling can help with issues like:

About my counselling

I offer individual counselling for a wide range of issues and problems for adults.

My aim is to offer a safe, supportive and sensitive place in which to explore what’s important to you – how you feel, think, and experience your life. I work in a way that values and respects all of your experience, bringing heightened awareness and perhaps discovering new resources with which to tackle difficulties. The emphasis is on what’s happening for you now, and I may invite you to try experiential work including drawing, clay modelling and dialogue.

Out of this kind of counselling can come many jewels, as I am still learning in my own personal work.

I have a particular interest in working with what is sometimes called the “inner critic”. This is a harsh, judgemental inner voice that many of us are uncomfortably familiar with. It tends to criticise, shame and belittle us – nothing we do seems good enough. Recognising and developing a measure of disengagement from this voice can often encourage movement.

Where appropriate I make use of the Enneagram system of personality types, which I have studied formally and informally for many years. My counselling training is in the Gestalt tradition at The Gestalt Centre in London, and you can read their description of the Gestalt approach here. I have also studied Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and although I am not a CBT therapist I am able to make use of this approach for specific difficulties.

Supervision

I have a Post-Graduate Diploma in Supervision. Currently I see private supervisee clients. Previously I have run supervision groups at West Kent Mind, and during my training provided supervision for an NHS-funded Psychological Therapy Service. Please contact me for further details about my supervision practice.

About my practice

I run my counselling practice from this ground floor consulting room in Leigh, near to Tonbridge and Sevenoaks in Kent. I also offer sessions via Skype or telephone. Sessions are of 60 minutes, with opportunities for review at any time. For many people 6 – 12 sessions works well. Others stay in counselling for longer, occasionally up to a year or more.

The session fee for new clients is £45 and this can be paid by cash, cheque; or from my online payment page by bank transfer, credit/debit card or PayPal. I also maintain a limited number of reduced cost places, please ask about this if you are not able to afford the regular fee. I ask that sessions cancelled with less than a day’s notice are paid for, however I do allow for one unavoidable cancellation every six months without payment. Here you can download an information and agreement sheet for new clients, and my current practice leaflet – both are PDF files.

In addition to my private practice I am the Lead Counsellor at West Kent Mind, and also work for an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). In the recent past I have worked as Lead Counsellor in an NHS-funded psychological therapy service for West Kent.

About me

I have long been fascinated by what is ultimately most important to us – our experience of being alive, with all of the joy and happiness, pain and suffering, love and hate. I worked in mental health social work for a few years near the start of my working life, then got distracted with a lengthy spell in music and sound recording. I have since returned to my first passion and trained as a counsellor, and my work has never felt more valuable and rewarding.

My personal exploration around who and what we are continues, and I spend a few weeks every year on retreat studying these questions.

I hold a Diploma in Counselling and am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), meaning that I subscribe to their code of ethics and that my practice meets their standard for a competent, ethical and independent practitioner. I also hold a Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Skills and a Post Graduate Diploma in Supervision.

Contact

You can contact me by email or by leaving a message on 07452 923412. I will return your call, so please leave a number and the times that you are happy for me to call you back.

Please note that occasionally I have been left a message where the sound quality is so poor I have not been able to decipher the number. I respond to all incoming contacts and if you do not hear back from me this is because I could not recover your contact details, so please try again.

My counselling practice is in the centre of Leigh, not far from the station and convenient for Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Edenbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Hildenborough. Off-street parking is available. The address is:

Alternatively use the button below to make a payment using a credit/debit card or PayPal. You can pay for two or more sessions by updating the quantity after pressing the Pay Now button.

Rate

Thank you for your payment!

Privacy notice

This privacy notice explains how I process data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2018. I am a Data Controller registered with the Information Commissioners Office under reference ZA307022. I am committed to protecting your personal data and collecting only the data that is needed, processing it in a fair, transparent and lawful manner, keeping it no longer than necessary and thereafter securely destroying it. I have implemented appropriate physical, technical and procedural measures to protect your personal data from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss.

The lawful basis under which I process personal data is called ‘contract’. You are entering into an agreement with me for the supply of a service – counselling – and I am processing your data in order to either provide that service or to respond to your request to determine if the service is appropriate.

Some of the information you may disclose to me is considered ‘special category’ data. This is sensitive information that might include data about, for example, your health, mental health, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs and so on. I take extra care with this kind of information. The lawful basis under which I process special category data is that I am providing a health and/or social care service.

I will never sell or share your personal data with other organisations for marketing purposes. I do not use any form of automated profiling or decision-making.

What information do you collect?

In addition to contact details, I keep factual notes about our sessions which may include sensitive information that you have disclosed to me. I may also keep a record of creative work, drawings or diagrams that we have used in our work together.

Where do you keep this information?

All session notes for private clients are stored on a secure cloud-based system called BacPac. Session notes for clients of an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) are stored exclusively on their own system. I do not keep session notes on paper. Other material from sessions is stored in a way which is not personally identifiable. I keep contact details only on a mobile phone.

Who is this information shared with?

Information stored electronically is not shared with anyone. I have regular supervision with supervisors, and these are the only people with whom I talk about my work. Supervisors are bound by the same terms of confidentiality as I am. Clients are identified by first name only. In the event of my becoming incapacitated in some way, a supervisor is able to access only the contact details of my clients.

The other occasions when data might be shared is when I have your consent to do so, or when I am obliged to break confidentiality for reasons which are discussed in the counselling agreement that I ask you to sign.]

How long do you keep records for?

I keep personal data for up to 5 years as I believe the information could be useful and relevant for a client returning to counselling. However as time passes the data becomes less relevant. I have chosen 5 years as a reasonable balance between retaining potentially useful data and keeping data no longer than neccessary.

What are my rights?

You can:

request access to a copy of the personal data I hold about you.

ask me to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data held about you.

ask me to delete your personal data where it is no longer necessary for me to use it.

ask me to provide you or a third party with some of the personal data that I hold about you in a commonly used form, so it can be easily transferred.

ask me to restrict the personal data I use about you where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to my use of it.

Note that some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances and I may not be able to fulfil every request. Please contact me if you wish to exercise any of these rights, or if you want to discuss with me any aspect of my privacy practices.